“There's
a lot we can do,” said Andre Collins, the NFLPA's director of former
player services, about the players association in general. Privacy rules
keep Collins from commenting specifically about Rogers' case.

“Every player's situation is different," Collins said. "Sometimes the 30 or 60 days is enough, but sometimes there are players who we have to help rebuild their lives.”

Rogers sat in the Saginaw County Jail for more than six weeks in connection with five misdemeanor charges from two unrelated cases. On Dec. 11, he was released on a personal recognizance bond on the condition that he travel with former Lions quarterback Eric Hipple to Ann Arbor to the University of Michigan's Depression Center.

A three-sport star at Saginaw High School, Rogers excelled as a wide receiver at Michigan State University. He was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2003 NFL Draft, but his promising career was cut short after three seasons by injuries and subsequent marijuana use.

After doctors at the Depression Center evaluated him, Rogers transferred to a facility in Houston, where he remains today. Saginaw County District Judge A.T. Frank said in court that the NFLPA will assist Rogers in getting a job and providing “any type of support” he needs.

A different approach

His high school rival and friend, Stuart Schweigert, says Rogers has hit "rock bottom."

"He needs help, he needs support," Schweigert said. "People have turned their back on him, and that's unfortunate. He still has time to turn things around."

Former Detroit Lions wide receiver and Saginaw High School star athlete Charles Rogers appears for arraignment before Saginaw County District Judge A.T. Frank on April 5.Joseph Tobianski | MLive.com

When Rogers appeared four hours late for a May court appearance, Judge Frank told him to meet with personnel from the Saginaw County Pre-Trial Services office, which offers, according to its website, "assessment, referral to substance abuse counseling and mental health service."

At that hearing, Rogers stood before Frank, his voice sometimes quivering, and asked the judge, "Do you really want to help me?"

Schweigert said Rogers' demeanor in court shows where he is mentally.

“He's very embarrassed right now,” said Schweigert, who played five seasons with the Oakland Raiders and the Lions. “If he gets past that, has his first couple of (events) in public, that anxiety will go down.”

But then Rogers failed to
report daily via telephone to authorities and to submit to random drug
testing, both bond requirements.

Rogers was lodged in the Saginaw County Jail from Oct. 25 on a bench warrant, issued after he violated his bond. Officials
said Rogers tested positive for marijuana upon being lodged at the
jail, and Judge Frank kept Rogers jailed without bond as he worked with
the players association to secure a second treatment program for Rogers.

Frank, who could not comment on Rogers
because of his ongoing court cases, has maintained an interest in
Rogers' progress since Rogers went to Ann Arbor and prior to that, as
well.

After Rogers sat in jail for those six weeks without word from the judge, Frank had him appear in court Dec. 6. The judge updated Rogers, in a closed courtroom, on when he would be picked up from the jail and taken to the university's program, with which the NFLPA contracts.

The judge told Rogers that he would be taken to the university, where personnel were to “do a whole host of things” to determine whether he is “serious” about keeping clean.

The University of Michigan's is one of the players association's “great partners,” said the NFLPA's Collins.

While not commenting on Rogers specifically, Collins said the players association has “built a partnership” with the university's program that allows players to “go there for a couple of days and be assessed.” The program includes a “yearlong follow-up” with university personnel, Collins said, as well as player-to-player mentoring — which is where Hipple, who played for the Lions in the 1980s, came in.

The program can be “pivotal,” said Schweigert, who in 2001 and 2002 co-hosted youth football camps with Rogers at Saginaw Township's Heritage High School.

In 2007, the NFLPA “commissioned a study on depression through the Depression Center,” Collins said. The study was done “long before depression was a topic of interest for most in the industry,” Collins said.

“We found out lots of valuable information,” Collins said, about football players and how their physical pain and transitions are related.

After the initial visit to the Depression Center, players are handled on a case-by-case basis, Collins says. Through “relationships around the country we've been building up over the years,” he said, the NFLPA is able to send players to programs for anywhere from 15 to 60 days — however long it's determined by personnel that they'll need to be there.

In his conversations with players association personnel, including Leslie Satchell, the NFLPA's player development manager, Judge Frank said the association is “worried” about Rogers' support system after he completes treatment.

“They would hate to go through it again and have it all for naught,” Frank told Rogers.

His own map

Rogers expressed a desire to go to North Carolina, Frank said, and asked the judge in court if he could complete some of the program there. The judge told him it was his understanding that he could.

The program can include helping players to continue their educations and “tuning” them up to become a solid member of the workforce.

“There's no cookie-cutter answer,” Collins says. “There's a number of people on our staff that work on these sorts of things. There's a general map for where you want to end up, but there's lots of different twists and turns you can take to get there.”

At the NFL scouting combine prior to the 2003 NFL Draft, Rogers tested positive for a masking agent after he couldn't urinate on the morning of his test. He was given bottles of water until he did, and then provided a “diluted sample of excess water.” Because too much water can dilute and alter a urine sample, a method sometimes used to avoid detection, it was marked as positive by the NFL.

After the Lions drafted him, Rogers signed a six-year contract worth $39.5 million that included a signing bonus of $14 million.

Detroit Lions wide receiver Charles Rogers listens to a reporter's question after working out Nov. 2, 2005, in Allen Park, Mich. Rogers returned to the active roster following his four-game suspension for violating the NFL's Substance Abuse Policy.Duane Burleson | AP file

He played three years for the Lions, breaking his collarbone in each of his first two seasons.

During his third season, in 2006, the NFL suspended him for four games for violating the league's substance abuse policy. The Lions cut him prior to the 2006 season, and in October 2006, he admitted that he was suspended because he used marijuana.

If he had played in 2006, he faced an additional four-game suspension, negotiated down from a year-long suspension, for violating the same policy by failing to comply with rules related to testing and treatment for players with previous violations.

Money was the root of the threats that Rogers' mother, Cathy Rogers, told police her son, his uncle Ronie Rogers, and his aunt Debbie Rogers made in voicemail messages in March. Charles Rogers and Ronie Rogers face charges of making a malicious phone call and conspiring to commit that crime in connection with the allegations.

Cathy Rogers played the voicemail messages for Michigan State Police Trooper Jennifer Coulter, and
in one of those messages, Charles Rogers threatened to “blow her mouth
out” and said he was willing to do “the time” he would face as a result. Coulter's report stated that the threatening phone calls came after she called Charles Rogers about the potential danger in him losing his house. Rogers indicated that he wanted his mother to return $100,000, the report states.

Ronie Rogers has denied the allegations and says Frank and prosecutors are “playing games” instead of using “common sense” to dismiss the case.

Charles Rogers also faces charges of possessing marijuana, possessing an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle, and operating a motor vehicle on a suspended or revoked license in connection with a Dec. 2, 2011, traffic stop at South Fayette and Dearborn in Saginaw.